Description
This 18-inch primary mirror is from a telescope originally constructed for the astrospectroscopist Sir William Huggins, who used it at his private observatory in Tulse Hill, London. From the early 1860s Huggins and his wife Margaret Lindsay Murray were pioneers in the study of the chemical spectra of stars, nebulae, and other astronomical objects. In 1870 their work was recognised by the Royal Society with a grant of £2000 for the purchase of improved instruments. Howard Grubb of Dublin was commissioned to produce a pair of new telescopes for the Tulse Hill Observatory, a 15-inch refractor of 5-foot focal length and an 18-inch reflector of 7-foot focal length. This is the primary mirror for the latter, made of cast speculum metal.

Huggins retired from active observing in 1908 and arranged for his telescopes to be transferred to the University of Cambridge’s Observatory, where they were housed in a custom-built dome funded by local philanthropist and astronomer Hugh Frank Newall. Both telescopes were eventually dismantled in 1953, with the primary lens from the refractor still preserved at the Observatory and this primary mirror from the reflector eventually transferred into the care of the Whipple Museum.
02/07/2015
Created by: Joshua Nall [using material from Hurn, ‘Sir William Huggins ... ‘] on 02/07/2015